micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176 
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Thought I'd delete my old thread, start a new one minus a lot of the guff, its all a bit new for a lot of people on here anyway, so don't need an update every time I whacked a sticker on  The story began with the death of my beloved but truly awful rover 220gti which expired just after the gathering last year due to cambelt failure and being hit by a taxi and a passat all within a 2 week period  r.i.p rover!  anyways I needed a cheap car in a hurry, so I found this little toyota which had been backed into a lamp-post! the damage didnt look bad, but the boot floor was quite creased, the spare was stuck in! within an hour or so it was roughly the right shape, then after a wash and polish it was sitting on the wheels from the rover, they didnt stay long as the tyres were shot, but looking back, I liked them quite a bit!    the plan was just to run around in it, which it did a great job of, for a car with over 170000 miles it drives like new, so I pottered around in ghetto farm-slag mode for an age until, when bored on a mates driveway, we found some jaguar rear springs and fiesta xr2 front springs and saw they were pretty much the same diameter and had potential for lows!!! heres the aforementioned ghetto farm-slag look and the springs:   I also won some BBS Mahles cheap off evilbay, however after getting all excited and refurbing them, I made the fatal mistake of only trial fitting the rears, stud lengths and odd shape calipers meant they had to be sold straight on   my rat liked them haha    they would have looked so nice I know studs are changeable but I made good profit on them, and had an offer that was hard to refuse!!! she got lowered, and I had a good tidy up of the body as best I could!!! made an adjustable panhard rod too, as this type of suspension makes the axle sit off to 1 side once lowered:        de-wipered, straighter bumper and vaguely JDM home made rear lamps:      oh yeah...lows      and that was about that for a few weeks, and where my last build thread ended (taking 4 pages to get there) until a random change of circumstance dictated otherwise... *instantly scurries off to write part 2 and reveal the van-y-ness* |
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Last Edit: Aug 12, 2012 17:29:35 GMT by micrat
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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ok so about a week after i thought she was 'finished' things went a bit odd at work and we changed premises, the driveway to which is about a 1/4 mile long, and looks like someone tarmacced the somme, circa 1916, even with my balloon tyres i was smashing my gearbox and sump to bits, aside from this, my car looks like this most days anyway:  what with that, a trip to drop off some alloys to MonzaPhil, and the arrival of some keys to my new and awesome lock up, a plan developed, meaning i needed a little van, and why risk buying a super cheap vauxhall combo or something with what little money i had, when i have a perfectly reliable little 'yota?! so, back up she went, and some poverty spec, a-team style converting ensued!!! stripped and cleaned:  plastics reinstalled along with anything that could be handy to use as a tie down etc (like the old seat catches)  foam rubber layed out and loft boards (lol) cut roughly, i put the seat squab back in as it gave a flat floor and a bit more sound deadening...   cut out spare wheel area, foam filled to give some support underneath and sound deaden a bit, and carpeted (with tiles, as its cheap and so am i, and a bit of wood, orginally to hold the carpet in place, but if it proves its worth for sliding heavy thing over it may stay)     a bit of audio to pass the time  and my first fill up, a good 150 KG of dog grub for my mates dobermann!  add a splash of vinyl and shes done:     have got these to go on too, mx5 wheels from CtiStu:  that should finish her off nicely  |
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I like that  id say get some spacers on it and keep the wheels that you have a nice twin upswpt exhaust like they do for JDM and youll be onto a winner i recon |
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Nobody dies a virgin, because lifes curse word us ALL
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Well this was a pleasant surprise. What a magnificently simple and well thought out little Starlet that is, can't fault a single thing you've done. It's always refreshing when I see someone getting it so right by sticking to a plan.
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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Well this was a pleasant surprise. What a magnificently simple and well thought out little Starlet that is, can't fault a single thing you've done. It's always refreshing when I see someone getting it so right by sticking to a plan. Thankyou very much! Possibly the nicest comment on any of my builds ever, just for my shabby little van, really appreciate that ;D |
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MonzaPhil
Posted a lot
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought
Posts: 2,456
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Well done and good luck with the new venture |
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This is now a clicky linky!  |
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Where did you get that weld in adjuster from for the panhard rod?
I wanna see if I could make some adjustable camber arms.
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VIP
South East
Posts: 8,302
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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May 21, 2012 11:01:07 GMT
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cheers yeah thats the one! |
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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May 23, 2012 19:38:43 GMT
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she's had a few little improvements, unfortunately the alloys are now up for sale, as the brakes are in desperate need of an overhaul so I'm freeing up funds! also, had to expand upwards as she's not the biggest inside and was limiting what I could carry, however that was easier said than done, being a 3 door with no roof channels, no roof rails, non-opening, bonded rear side windows, all worked against me fitting any roof mounted equipment...so we got all excited and used power tools and bravery... did the most important job first:  then pulled out my rubber gutter-stuffers (don't know what they're called haha) and offered my rack up (£30 quid bargain off of ebay) the feet can be adjusted and were a nice fit inside the gutter...   obviously this was going to require bolts and weld! so to protect my vinyled rear windows I whacked out the foil, and masked up...  some butt ugly welds and medium amounts of fire later it was on!!! (don't worry, we cleaned up a bit!!!) also then ran a drill through, and nut and bolted them with big repair washers under the roof skin, just in case...      chopped and replaced the black rubber sections that filled the channels, and then added some graphics that ive been given or had laying around!!!   currently welding up some bars that will fit lengthways attached to the roof bars, and will be movable to cater for wide loads down to alloys!!! its strong as an ox, but sounds like a stuka above about 60 now with the wind whistling through the rack!!! |
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Last Edit: May 23, 2012 19:42:07 GMT by micrat
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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May 30, 2012 19:36:27 GMT
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Are those Mazda/Eunos alloys? They suit the van quite well.
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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Jul 22, 2012 18:11:41 GMT
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Mega-update alert!!! So have a bit of backstory... Right, so as anyone who has previously looked at this thread will know, my little starlet (charlotte) started life with me as a rear-ended, bog standard base spec starlet, i then tidied her up a bit with things like a de-wipered rear and some old rover gti alloys, and painting the bumpers/mirrors/scuttle/wipers etc... Her second evolution was started by me getting a mega-cheap set of BBS alloys, these didnt fit however it planted the seed and she was then lowered a silly amount on choppy springs over standard rims... Her 3rd evolution came very soon after when things went a bit pear-shaped job wise and i needed a small van, so I converted the starlet, and she ran around like this for 3 or so months i guess, earning me a few pennies, and this is where the thread last got to... Recently though i came to a bit of a crossroads, the flooding round here left the back totally soaked, the wood warped, and the thing was constantly steamed up, add that to some niggling problems, and some self inflicted ones (fire damaged headlining lol) and i wasnt sure where to go, i didnt see the point in keeping her as a van, as the cost of the extra insurance to carry goods wasnt paying for itself...but, i stuck with her, cos the little trooper has grown on me, takes a legendary amount of abuse for a car which now has 177,000 miles and climbing!!! The whole following update has been done by me, single handedly, basically 99% over this weekend, and I'm quite proud with what i achieved its nothing amazing but ive never done wiring of any kind before and only learnt how to lower a car a month or so ago...let alone other stuff, no great engineering, but I'm really happy After taking my last big van-full (noodles the dobermann) I stripped out the back revealing a dogs-mess of expanding foam, water, old accident damage, rusty puddles and general skankyness... Before:  After:  de-vinyled the side to see what i was dealing with a bit better, then got busy with the ratchet straps and mallets, straightening her out a bit!!!    closer than ever, i guess...  Obviously the rear end now resembled tin foil but hey its true and seals to the boot, its as good as its going to get!!! The headlining which we kinda set on fire a bit was then removed, revealing some hideous glued on carpety curse word    interior and headlining cleaned and nearly there...   rear carpets trimmed to be straight across, they had weird tags heading off behind what would have been the rear seat area...  now the more interesting bits started, with the aid of some hot tub pipework from work, i whacked an induction kit and some cold air piping on, whacked the air temp sensor in the old resonator hole...    then, er, lowered it she already had an adjustable panhard rod on from before, so that was one less hassle, bonus of black lowering springs, you can feign innocence about it being low if needs be haha...     in a moment of randomness i decided i wanted some form of release for the hot air under the bonnet, i know its no 200bhp glanza, but still air temps matter, and i was bored and had a drill...so started drilling, cant be afraid at this point lol...pattern is a bit scatty, i should have planned better, heres a during...   it does qork quite well, put my hand over it after a spirited drive earlier, lots of hot air coming out, also means the cold air feed should be doing its job, not just blowing into a pocket of heat... anyway, bumper then came off for a respray, it was stonechipped to hell...     while that was drying...       chopped up one of my old arch rolling poles, should make a good brace...  rear bumper off...  nice lick of paint to tidy the inside and rear panel up...  paint the spare, still need it, daily driver and all...   spare in and secured, brace painted and trial fitted (smacked until tight lol)    wired up a rev counter, never even tried this before so was well happy when it worked (see vid) wiring still needs running properly but hey, should be nice and blue and glowy at night too   vid:  so thats about that, epic weekend! still to come, finishing off, fitting exhaust (cherry bomb), and some nice pics of the finished article, oh and wheel refurb lol! i would lose the roofrack but we welded it on, plus it still gets used:  oh also, you've read this far, spare 12 seconds for this its worth a laugh, playing xbox the other night, think they overdid what happens when you smack a clipping point!!!  |
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adi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,426
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Jul 22, 2012 18:36:18 GMT
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ahh I see you've met the famous tom etheridge from skeg. Proper weapon is that mk1 polo. Next job has to be getting a glanza engine in there! I've had a 180bhp starlet turbo before, absolute animal |
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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Jul 22, 2012 20:06:47 GMT
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ahh I see you've met the famous tom etheridge from skeg. Proper weapon is that mk1 polo. Next job has to be getting a glanza engine in there! I've had a 180bhp starlet turbo before, absolute animal Ha yeah my mate tom (also) moved up there from bognor and works with him at ford in skeg now! Seriously considering a glanza lump but a n/a 1.5 corolla lump is an easier and cheaper option! Should be 115bhp-ish with very basic mods! Am determined to get to 200,000 on this 1.3 first though |
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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Jul 24, 2012 21:42:23 GMT
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Jul 24, 2012 22:36:32 GMT
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Well done. I'm enjoying this. I've a corolla. Same era. 1342cc engine. I think that's what you have. I've also no rev counter as standard. What make is the one you have, was it difficult to wire up? I fancy trying to install one. Steve
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micrat
South East
Building a Kanjo styled Cinquecento :)
Posts: 1,176
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Well done. I'm enjoying this. I've a corolla. Same era. 1342cc engine. I think that's what you have. I've also no rev counter as standard. What make is the one you have, was it difficult to wire up? I fancy trying to install one. Steve Cheers steve it was actually easy which surprised me! The rev counter came with 5 wires, 1 was revs, the other were 2 powers and 2 earths (illumination and the gauge itself) i put those together so its always illuminated when on, ran the power from my stereo power lead, earthed it to a wing bolt, then the rev feed came from the little doagnostic box in the engine bay, ill get a pic and PM you but basically theres a spade connection in there so its almost plug and play! |
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passmethegun
Part of things
"A closed mouth gathers no feet"
Posts: 58
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"whacked the air temp sensor in the old resonator hole..."
I properly lolled at this, its gotta be a euphemism no?
Good job on the Starlet, the van floor was some proper engineering!
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pass me the gun and ask me again........
Manta 400R Coupe (in lots of bits)
Manta Exclusive Coupe (in less bits)
BMW 320d (one big bit) |
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id say get some spacers on it and keep the wheels that you have 
